Itâs one more sign that heâs not planning on giving up the office.
Well fuck.
I wonder if a federal grand jury is like others comprised of ordinary people, or of Tramp toadies.
Not enough.
Gangster rule in action. Trump is a genuine no-holds-barred âgangster fascistâ.
Thatâs redundant.
Regular people. But a grand jury is a very low hurdle to clear for the prosecution. Itâs not a trial. The rules of evidence donât apply, so hearsay and all kinds of shit can be introduced that wouldnât be allowed in the trial. Also, the suspect isnât allowed to present a defense. Itâs just the prosecutor throwing out everything they have and saying âhereâs why we think this person is guilty.â Grand juries rarely donât return an indictment unless the prosecutor doesnât want them to.
Our local MAGA supporters (our patriots are weird) are claiming victory after this Middle East tour. They are saying that these billion-dollar investments are proof that tariffs have worked and that millions of jobs will be created in the United States as companies like Apple and TSMC are installing factories and factories in American Soil. They firmly believe their leader in spite of facts.
This is the mystery of faith.
I do not disagree⌠but, however awful, there was some veneer of ideology/politics behind many previous fascist leaders. Trumpâs is pure 100% self-serving mobsterism (those behind him pulling strings are of course almost entirely ideologically driven).
But we are debating the number of devils that can fit on the head of a pin, here. 
Iâm still surprised they got an indictment. Are there any consequences for prosecutors if they deceive a grand jury or knowingly present false evidence?
Consequences? Consequences only apply to those on the other side, of course.
(That old saw about in groups and out groups and laws not binding or otherwise, yet a-fucking-gain.)
There is behind Trumpâs too. As self-serving as he is you can see some genuine principles â white people are better than others, men are better than women, and what matters is not truth or justice but dominance, where you prove youâre the best by hurting everyone else. And ultimately I donât think fascism ever had more to it than that.
The real redundancy is that all fascists act as gangsters, though.
WOW. The Trump admin said they will review social media and deny immigration benefits to people saying antisemitic claims. Theyâre even trying to deport people with green cards on alleged claims of antisemitism.
Anyway, hereâs a tweet from an Afrikaner they flew here on Monday.
blurred for antisemitism
apologies, apt meme thereby triggered:
As with most things in the law . . . it depends. If the prosecutor presents actual false evidence or testimony they knew to be false, then absolutely there could be consequences. Thatâs not usually necessary to get an indictment, though. All they really need to do is present the evidence they have in a light most favorable to the prosecution. Again, thereâs no defense. Grand jury proceedings are entirely one sided. So, in this case, Iâm guessing they left out details like the fact that the hallway the jury door led to that the judge let the guy and his attorney use was the same public hallway the main door led to, and that ICE agents were in that hallway. They may have left out the fact that an agent was in the elevator with the guy and his attorney, or that he was apprehended immediately after running. They probably didnât include the fact that ICE just had an administrative warrant and that that shouldnât have allowed them to arrest the guy in the courthouse. Those are all factors the defense will bring up at trial. But the prosecution can leave them out for grand jury proceedings. Grand jury proceedings are basically inherently unfair and massively biased in favor of the prosecution. About the only time they wonât return an indictment is when the prosecution doesnât want them to. When would that be? When theyâre 100% sure theyâre going to lose at trial. Now, with a normal DOJ, that would be the case here. But we no longer have a normal DOJ. We have a DOJ full of Trump loyalists, and theyâre going to push this as far as they can because thatâs what their boss wants. I am not surprised the grand jury returned an indictment. And thatâs not a reflection on the people who served on that jury, but on the whole grand jury system and the current DOJ.
Yeah, but I think Trumps narcissism and self-serving nature drives him much more than his prejudices. Though where the boundary is and whether they are even distinguishable much of the time is a very moot point.
Fascism as a political ideology (white supremacy, women in their place, et fucking cetera) can, from another perspective, equally be defined as gangster behaviour with added political power. As you implicitly point out - ideology is one thing, behaviour is another. No need to draw a Venn diagram, eh? (Because the label in the overlap says âMight is rightâ and the overlap is most or all of both circles.)
But all these fine points aside, I also believe in political violence, but in one edge case only, unlike fascists, who live by it.
PUNCH A NAZI!
Thanks!
Yeah, and my fingers were itching to type basically what you wrote in the last few sentences. 
I like the NYTimes hilarious framing of this:
In High-Stakes Negotiations, Trumpâs Opponents Are Learning His Patterns
And what are those âpatternsâ? The subhead gives it away:
President Trump often takes maximalist positions, only to back down and declare a win. His opponents are catching on.
Uh, yeah - doesnât require much âcatching onâ when your negotiating opponent consistently chickens out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/us/politics/trump-ukraine-china-iran-negotations.html